Unfortunately, due to the time constraints and to the big demand for “Snakes and Ladders” , not everyone will be able to play. : ( Four students will play at a time, in pairs. First years and Seconds Years will alternate.

There were a few possible correct answers for some of the following. One possible answer has been given in each case.

Question 1Your sock drawer contains ten pairs of white socks and ten pairs of black socks. If you're only allowed to take one sock from the drawer at a time and you can't see what colour sock you're taking until you've take it, how many socks do you have to take before you're guaranteed to have at least one matching pair?

Answer
Three. In the worst case, the first two socks taken out will consist of one black and one white sock. The next sock you take out must be one or the other.Question 2
A father is four times as old as his son. In twenty years, he'll be twice as old. How old are they now?

Answer
The father is 40 and the son is 10.Question 3
How can you build pig pens so you can put nine pigs in four pens such that each pen has an odd number of pigs?

AnswerBuild three pens and put three pigs in each. Then build a fourth pen around the other three.Question 4Three people go fishing - two fathers and two sons. How is this possible?

Answer
The three people are a grandfather, father and son.Question 5How can you express the number 100 using six nines, using whatever Maths symbols you wish and no other digits?

Brain teasers to be read out in class every day, for students to tackle.

October 13th – 17th

A poster competition will be held for Second Years. Posters must be submitted by Tuesday October the 14th. Students can work in pairs or max in a group of four. Posters should be designed on relevant areas of the maths course for example “golden rules for adding & subtracting integers”, formulas etc.

The Animal Welfare Committee is run by a voluntary group of students with the help of Ms.Holohan and Ms. O’Connor. It is made up of about 13 members. Members include 2nd Years :

Avril Hayden (Chairperson)

Elizabeth Cummins (Secretary)

Cristina Cullen

Aoife Walsh

Aoife Courtney

Naoise Hennessy

Aoife Seery

Aoife Rice-Murphy

Anne-Marie Stacey

Also the 1st Years :

Elena Cullen

Rebecca McManus

Chloe Richards

Other students attend on an occasional basis.

Meetings are held in Art Room 1 regularly. It is a fun voluntary extra-curricular activity. Its mascot is Wally the Walrus. All ideas are listened to and accepted equally.
The Animal Welfare Committee has an annual Cake-Sale on Sports Day in May. This is our main fundraising event of the year. Many students and staff bake and donate cakes for us to sell and it is a very fun day for all involved. Proceeds of this go to various animal welfare organisations including the Kildare Animal Foundation and Dogs Aid. We keep a small amount of the proceeds to help us with campaigns the following year.
This year the Animal Welfare Committee has had many successful campaigns. Last summer the Animal Welfare Committee had a collection for the Kildare Animal Foundation and Dogs Aid of old blankets and towels, dog and cat food and play toys. We received a lot of donations and split it between the two organisations.
At the beginning of the school year we had a petition against fur farming in Ireland. Many may not know but fur farms are allowed in Ireland, there is no rule against them. We got a total of 357 signatures. We sent off our petition to Minister for the Environment, John Gormley and Mary Coughlan, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. We are still awaiting a reply from both.
At Christmas we had a poster campaign “An Ethical Christmas.” We tried to encourage people to buy Christmas gifts with products by companies that don’t test on animals. E.g.:L’OréalSara LeeElida FabergeTRESemme
In February we took on the task of decorating the courtyard at the centre of our school to make it tidier and more bird-friendly. We put out plants and set out a bird table and bath and generally tidied it up. Many birds came to visit afterwards and our work was the topic in the staff room for long after it!
After a year and a half of organising we got speaker from the DSPCA to visit our school and to give a talk on Pet Care to the 1st Years. She brought one of the DSPCA’s dogs - Beckham. The 2nd Years of the committee were allowed to come to the talk also. We had a great time, learned a lot about animals and Beckham did a few tricks for us. After the talk we gave a donation to the DSPCA on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee.
The Animal Welfare Committee is a place where you can make friends, have fun and help save the animals!

Over the past number of weeks, 1st and 2nd year students have been participating in a debating competition held in Our Lady of Mercy, Beaumont. Altogether, 17 students took part - many of whom were getting their first taste of public speaking. The standard shown by these students was extremely high, and with a massive team effort, Dominican College managed to defeat a number of other schools to attain first place. The future of public speaking and debating in Dominican in certainly safe in the hands of these girls!